24. Voluntary Manslaughter Flashcards
Voluntary Manslaughter
Like a partial justification (victim did something really bad, does deserve a punishment but not a severe one) or a partial excuse (not justified, overreacted, but a reasonable person would’ve been tempted by the provoking factor)
Provocation doctrine (common law)
- Highly provoking event
- Legally adequate
o 1. Angry words followed by assault
o 2. The sight of a friend or relative being beaten
o 3. The sight of a citizen being unlawfully deprive of his liberty
o 4. The sight of a man in adultery with the accused’s wife
o Legally insufficient: words alone, affronting gestures, trespass to property, misconduct by a child or servant, breach of contract - Defendant is in fact enraged
- Reasonable person would be too (reasonable person doesn’t kill, but would be tempted)
- Defendant kills before expiration (no cooling off period)
- *Purposeful murder can get downgraded because of provocation
Freddo v. State
- Freddo and deceased were roundhouse employees, deceased use phrased son of a bitch, which Freddo didn’t like, asked him to stop using but he didn’t, after someone spilled oil on deceased’s tool box he called Freddo a son of a bitch, Freddo grabbed steel bar and struck him, killed
- Not sufficient to show he killed under impulse of sudden passion
- Not legally adequate – words alone are not legally adequate provocation
- Not reasonable – objective standard of reasonableness of men in the roundhouse
o Freddo is peculiar – “morally well trained”
State v. Gougnagias (cooling period)
- D got very drunk, deceased insulted D and then sodomized him while he was helpless, deceased told a lot of people about it over several weeks who made fun him, one day he went home to grab gun and killed deceased while he was sleeping
- Didn’t allow evidence of provocation because it was a period of time, sudden anger cannot be cumulative, must be sudden anger and resentment, but evidence showed brooding and thought resulting in a design to kill
People v. Berry (no cooling period, words)
- D killed wife after a 10 day period where she told him she had an affair and loved another man, strangled her with telephone cord
- Court said there was enough evidence to show he killed in a state of uncontrollable rage caused by provocation, verbal provocation enough in cases of infidelity and taunting, long course of provocatory conduct reached final culmination (no cooling off period)
Bedder v. Director of Public Prosecutions (objective standard)
- Sexually impotent man approached prostitute, tried to have sex with her and couldn’t, she jeered at him, he stabbed her
- Objective standard – reasonable person, not sexually impotent man
- Reasonable person would not have been provoked, conviction for murder affirmed
Mistake
- Provocation reasonable if:
o 1. He reasonably believes that he has been injured
o 2. Reasonable man who suffered injury would be put in passion directed at other
State v. Yanz
if no adultery was going on, if circumstances justified belief of adultery and belief was reasonably formed, then could reduced to manslaughter
EED (Extreme Emotional Disturbance–>MPC)
- Committed under the influence of extreme mental or emotional disturbance
- EED be based on reasonable explanation or excuse
o Determined from viewpoint of person in the actor’s situation under the circumstances as he believes them to be - *Idiosyncratic moral values are not take into account
- *Anything highly provoking can count as long as it invokes in the person extreme emotional distress that has a reasonable explanation/excuse
o *Slow-boiling can go to jury, words can go to jury
Mistake (EED)
Don’t have to be right, just have to be reasonable
People v. Casassa
o D and victim lived in same building, dated for a bit, she broke up with him, he was obsessed with her, she rejected him, he stabbed her to death
o Court said that his reaction was so peculiar to him that it could not be reasonable to reduce conviction to manslaughter, guilty of 2nd degree murder
o Burden of persuasion is on D to prove EED
Kicked out of voluntary manslaughter if reasonable person would’ve cooled down or reasonable person wouldn’t have reacted that way
